A Thing of Beauty
by John Keats
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Taken from the opening of Keats's long poem 'Endymion', these lines celebrate the everlasting joy that beauty brings. 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever', its loveliness increases and never fades into nothingness; instead it gives us a quiet bower (shelter) and sweet, healthful sleep full of peaceful dreams. Every morning we weave a 'flowery band' that binds us to the earth, in spite of despondence, the lack of noble natures, gloomy days and unhealthy, darkened ways. Beautiful things remove the pall (dark cloud) from our dark spirits. Keats lists such beauties: the sun, the moon, trees old and young that give shade to simple sheep, daffodils, clear rills (streams) that make a cooling cover in the hot season, and the mid-forest brake rich with musk-rose blooms. Even the grandeur of the mighty dead we imagine, and all the lovely tales we have heard or read, are an endless fountain of immortal drink pouring into us from heaven's brink, an unending source of joy.
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The poem asserts that beauty is a permanent source of joy that sustains the human spirit through the sorrows and difficulties of life.
Beauty is a joy for ever
The poem opens with the famous line 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.' Its loveliness keeps increasing and will never pass into nothingness. Instead, a beautiful thing gives us a quiet bower, a shelter, and a sweet, health-giving sleep full of calm breathing and peaceful dreams.
Bound to the earth by beauty
Therefore, every morning we weave a 'flowery band' that ties us to the earth, in spite of despondence, the inhuman scarcity of noble natures, gloomy days, and the unhealthy, darkened paths we search for our existence. Some shape of beauty always moves this pall, this dark cloud, away from our spirit.
Examples of beauty
Keats lists the beauties that give this joy: the sun, the moon, old and young trees that shelter simple sheep, and daffodils with the green world they live in. He adds clear streams (rills) that make a cool covering against the hot season, and the mid-forest thicket rich with the blossoms of the musk-rose.
An immortal fountain
He also counts the imagined grandeur of the 'mighty dead' and all the beautiful tales we have heard or read. All these lovely things are like an endless fountain of immortal drink pouring into us from the very brink of heaven, an unending, divine source of joy for the human soul.